Tony's Diary Package — page 195

In 2001, with Mr. Kramer suffering from both hepatitis B and side effects of his H.I.V. medication -- he had the disease for at least six years before effective triple-drug cocktails became standard practice -- Dr. Fauci became his doctor. Mr. Kramer had told him he was not doing well, and doctors were baffled. "I said, 'Come to the N.I.H. We'll work you up.'" Dr. Fauci recalled. "He was really at death's door. We realized he needed a liver transplant." Mr. Kramer went on a transplant list. But there was a public debate over whether he should get a scarce donor organ, because patients with H.I.V. had long been considered less likely to survive, despite the introduction of effective medications. And at 66, Mr. Kramer was older than a typical transplant candidate. Nonetheless, he got a new liver that December at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. That not only set a precedent for H.I.V. patients and older patients, but also abruptly reversed the decline in Mr. Kramer's health. "He really bounced back," Dr. Fauci said. "It gave him multiple more years of life." The relationship between the two men played out in Mr. Kramer's literary works as well as in his political activism. Mr. Kramer's autobiographical play in 1992, "The Destiny of Me," includes a character based on Dr. Fauci. "He's named Anthony Della Vida -- Tony Of Life," Dr. Fauci said. "He told me he wanted the actor who was playing me to come down to Bethesda and go on hospital rounds with me and learn my mannerisms. "He made the character a mix of goodness and rigidity. To him, that's the federal government -- rigid." "On opening night, he invited my wife and me, and he's so sensitive about our friendship," Dr. Fauci added. "I was standing around at the reception afterward with all these activists -- Peter Staley, Gregg Gonsalves, Mark Harrington -- and he comes up to me sheepishly and says, 'Do you hate me?'" "I said, 'What, Larry, it was a good play.'" "He said, 'Well, I was a little hard on you.'" "I said, 'Larry, you're always doing that to me, anyway!'" The Life of Larry Kramer ............................................................................................... White House Comms back to blocking me. They even balked at my doing press associated with Larry Kramer's death........really????